Why
Vegan Outreach? A Day in the Life

Vic
Sjodin, the animals’ Gentle Giant and VO’s SoCal
coordinator, has been continuing his amazing
work. Here is just one example, from Mt. San
Antonio College last week:

“Special day; many interactions with people
after getting booklets. Overheard students saying
things like, ‘this is horrible,’ and discussing
the booklet with friends.

“Veronica
[below, left] came back, said she wants to stop eating
and hurting animals, and asked for lit to show
her friends. Also met Milagro [right] who was
horrified by the treatment of animals and wants
to go veg.

“Three
students [below, right] were also horrified by the treatment
of farmed animals; they said they wanted to work
with VO for their mandatory 8 hours of volunteering
for one of their classes.

“Another
student [below, left] stopped by and told me she was an
animal lover and related how she had saved dogs
and a duck. I mentioned that the animals who
suffer the most abuse are those confined and
mutilated and killed for human consumption;
I gave her a Guide and gently related that to
be an animal lover means not to eat them! Another
student [below, right] came by and said she was deeply
affected by the lit and wants to go vegan.

“Also
met Pedro [right] who was in haste going to
class but related how it was just horrible what
happens to farmed animals; he wanted to help
and hoped to connect in the future. Many other interactions
[including Jordana, below, center] and quick bro downs, a very solid day here.”

Thanks
so much to everyone who makes Vic’s work possible
– and the work of hundreds and hundreds of
other leafleters – with your support!
It really makes a difference: all these lives changed are because of your donations!

Free
E-Book of the Week

To
celebrate the International Day of Peace on
Sept. 21st, Ken Beller’s Great
Peacemakers e-book is being offered
free of charge from Sept. 21 through Sept. 23. Note: Ken’s
marketing firm, Near
Bridge, has consulted (pro bono) on the
content of VO’s booklets.

Notes
from Our Members

A
nice start to my 21st semester
of leafleting for Vegan Outreach – I reached
nearly 1,500 students with VO’s booklets at
Illinois State. Heard from two vegans, 17 vegetarians
and one student who let me know that getting
the booklet from me last year moved him to drop
meat. I gave him a Guide and thanked him for sparing animals.—Joe Espinosa, 8/20/13

It
was a cold and windy day at Royal
Melbourne Institute of Technology, but we were
overwhelmed with the response. People were really
receptive and the take rate was quite high.
Some people went out of their way to come and
take a booklet, and others stopped for a chat.
Kristin, Liz, Rachael, John [Sakars, right], Eliza, and I handed
out all our booklets in 42 minutes. At the cafe
we found a long line and a few people were reading
their booklet, and many many more reading them
at the tables.—Chelsea Collins (below, reaching a student at RMIT), 8/9/13

I kicked
off this fall with Virginia State.
These open-minded students weren’t even a little
hesitant to grab a booklet that was offered
to them as “info to help animals.”
Had two conversations with a vegetarian [Karla, right], and
then with a pre-vegan who wants to go meatless
every day for lunch. Baby steps, folks! Had
a long, wonderful conversation with a biology
student who was told every veg-myth I’ve ever
heard. She was so wide-eyed when hearing the
truth, nodded in agreement (many “that’s
true”s and “never thought of it that way”s),
and was excited to get her Guide after
asking how she can get started in reducing her
meat consumption. AND…I broke my first record
today – the new all-time high at VSU is 1,334!—Kassy Ortega, 8/22/13

Cold
wind at the Pismo Beach farmers’
market earlier this month, but a receptive crowd.
I targeted the booklets to young adults, but
quite often they ended up in the hands of kids.
I watched a boy and girl [below] read the booklet cover-to-cover. The girl sat on a curb and read it
for the longest time, and when her mom told
her it was time to move on, she kept right on
reading as she walked.

At the Pismo Beach Car
Show, I saw many people reading the booklet
and sharing the info with others. A few people
asked what the literature was about. My standard
reply today was, “It’s about how animals
suffer to become food and what we can do about
it.” Everyone still took a copy!
A guy came back
with the booklet in hand to tell me he had worked
in a slaughterhouse and how it caused him to
swear off animals’ flesh for a while, though
he currently eats some birds. He said he’d like
to be vegan if he could figure out good sources
of protein, so, of course, he got Guided.

Barbara also sends this pic of two young men reading our booklets at the Pismo Beach farmers’ market.

Great interactions
back at the Pismo Beach farmers’ market today.
Three young men walked up, and while two of them
joked about liking bacon, the third stopped
and asked what the booklet was about. I told
him the brochure was specifically about how
animals suffer to become food. He paged through
it, then said, “I appreciate you,”
and shook my hand sincerely before we parted
ways. Another guy came over purposefully to
see what I was handing out. As I answered his
questions, he paged deeper into the booklet
and kept shaking his head saying, “This
is just wrong.” We shook hands and he left
with a Guide in hand. The way his opinion changed
during the course of the conversation, I think
he’s going to be cutting back on his animal
consumption.
Finally, Gavin said he’d been all sorts of things – macrobiotic,
raw, vegan, then slipped back to “the dark
side.” I said it was never too late to
come back to the light. :) He spoke of having
“vices” that he is haunted by – eating sugar,
etc. I said as long as my vices don’t hurt anyone
else, then I’m O.K. with them. He thought it
was important to free oneself from suffering
first before trying to free others from it.
I said “compassion” means “to
suffer with,” and that if I didn’t feel
the animals’ suffering, I probably wouldn’t
be out there leafleting. He took that to heart.—Barbara Bear, 6/26/13

Another
great day leafleting at University
Center. MFA volunteers Brian, Jen, Alan, Heather,
Stephanie, Glenn, and I reached 1,600 people.
Multiple people asked me about what was in the
leaflet and wanted to know where they could
get more information. Not only did it seem like
people were receptive to learning about the
suffering of animals in factory farms and slaughterhouses,
there were tons of pro-veg people on the street
thanking us for the amazing outreach. It really
seems like, slowly but surely, change is happening.—Becki Markle, 8/8/13

Good
convos at Miami Dade College –
probably met a good half-dozen happy vegetarians.
Several others stopped, saying they’d been wanting
to try going veg but were asking for pointers on how to get started. The several who felt especially
challenged in the past were really receptive
to trying the incremental approach. Felt good
seeing people feeling recharged and ready to
give vegetarianism another go.—Yuri Mitzkewich, 7/15/13

Wendy
and I had good interactions at
Gen Con. For example, Wendy spoke with one man
who said he really liked bacon but after hearing
how pigs are treated he said he would try some
of the vegan alternatives she suggested. One
girl in a pig costume [right] saw the booklet and said
she loved pigs, and thought it was
awful that they suffer such cruelty and abuse.—Tonja Robertson, 8/16/13

We
reached 200 people at the Foggy
Bottom Metro station. When we were about to
hand out our last one, a woman said, “I
read this last year and stopped eating meat.
And since I cook, my husband doesn’t eat meat
at home anymore.” I said, “The cook
has the power!”—Gary Lowenthal, 8/20/13

Vegan
Outreach is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
dedicated to reducing the suffering of
farmed animals by promoting informed,
ethical eating.